Red alert on political violence in Bengal

The bomb attack on Bengal junior labour minister Jakir hossain at Murshidabad’s Nimtita railway station is an ominous sign that political violence isn’t just picking up but has also reached a new level ahead of Bengal assembly polls. The state government has now formed a multi-agency SIT to probe the incident, even as chief minister Mamata Banerjee held Railways responsible and alleged a conspiracy comparable to the assassination of then Punjab CM Beant Singh in 1995.

Bengal has a history of political violence which tellingly peaks around election time. This speaks to the abject failure of law and order institutions under successive governments. But the core reason why they have failed is that irrespective of who’s in government or opposition the use of muscle power has come to be seen as a standard political instrument. Socially a curious paradox exists between Bengal’s so-called bhadralok culture that most state leaders espouse and the hooliganism that underpins their political ambitions.

But it doesn’t have to be like this no matter how intense politics is in Bengal. For example, in the long hyper-polarised politics of Tamil Nadu, Bengal-style political violence is absent.

Meanwhile, the argument that Bengal is different is self-serving. After all, by allowing political violence to continue the state’s political parties limit institutional functioning and keep intact their unofficial channels of patronage. In the larger scheme this prevents Bengal’s economic development and corrodes social well-being. Most fearfully, the bomb attack on hossain reminds how wildly the fire of political violence has raged in this state as well as others in the past. Nobody would want a return to that. So rein it in before it is too late.

Thus, both political sides should sincerely pledge to shun violence and allow law enforcers to do their job. That would be real poriborton.